Khamzat Chimaev’s UFC 328 pay day could be his last at middleweight

Photo by Ed Mulholland/Zuffa LLC

Khamzat Chimaev has provided some clarity on his future ahead of his first defence of the UFC middleweight title.

Chimaev’s coach said he told the fighter to put thoughts of moving up a division on hold and stay focused on what’s in front of him.

‘Borz’ is set to headline back-to-back pay-per-view events, putting both his title and undefeated record on the line against Sean Strickland this weekend.

Even with a highly-anticipated grudge match right around the corner, others have already started making pitches for Chimaev fighting for a belt at light heavyweight.

Khamzat Chimaev blames pizza for plan to move to light heavyweight after UFC 328

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

Khamzat Chimaev has been eyeing a move to light heavyweight for a while now, even before his recent comments about wanting a boxing match with Conor McGregor.

With the division currently without an active champion due to Carlos Ulberg’s injury, the timing seems right for him to make that switch.

During UFC 328 fight week, he was asked if May 9 would be his final appearance at 185 pounds.

“I hope so, I like to eat pizza, man. We will see,” he responded, as seen in MMA Fighting’s upload of the scrum.

The middleweight landscape isn’t offering much outside of Nassourdine Imavov, who had a strong case but wasn’t given the next title shot over Strickland. Chimaev noted that fighting Strickland made more sense financially.

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